I care very little for the news, I think my quality of life is better without it. Our family has adopted the C-Bob response to the fear mongering our NOB friends and family thrust on us. "Yes, we're aware there is violence. No, we haven't witnessed anything personally. Yes, we take precautions like we would anywhere in the world."

That said, now I want some news, dammit! Yesterday, around 4pm, on the highway in front of Chapala Haciendas II we saw.....something..... Neither of us are sure what it was. There was a truck in the right hand lane, doors flung open. There were two cars half on and half off the highway. There was a man with arms extended, at the end of those arms was a handgun pointing in the direction of one of the cars. There was a furious face and a holster. And Bam! we drove around the whole shiteree in less than a second and that's all we saw.

Thanks. Even if pressed, I couldn't describe jack shit. Just my impression of fury and then yikes! No cars came down the hill at Ixtla for a good little while, then it was business as usual. It's a little weird how that happens down here. NOB you can't fart on an overpass without it making the local news.

One afternoon we were driving east from Joco and just about to enter SJC on the carretera. Soon cars in front started slowing and wavering around a little like they couldn't decide which way to pull over. I pulled to the right and between the cars ahead I was able to see about a block and a half ahead there were cop cars pulled over on the sides of the carretera with their doors open and cops crouched behind them with guns pointed. Apparently, we were all just about to drive right smack through the middle of a shootout! heh

We shot down to the right and made our way through the village to continue our journey. Never heard a word about it, wrong place/wrong time. We were lucky too. Head's up. . .

In Southern California I once lived in an "interesting" neighborhood. One morning I backed out of my parking space which was located under the apartment building. As I got out of my car to close the garage door I heard these words shouted at me, "Hey lady get out. You're in the line of fire!" There was one police car across the entrance to the parking area and another one angled further in. Both front doors were open with a police officer crouched behind each one, guns drawn. They were aimed at a SUV with tinted windows parked in front of my neighbor's garage door. I reached into my car, turned off the engine, and grabbed my freshly made latte from the cup holder. I walked across the lot to the next apartment building and got into the space between building and wall. As I sipped my latte, I peeked around the corner and watched the take down of the guy in the SUV. Incidents like that never made the news either. Too common and not gory enough.

During the May massacres a few years ago we were visiting friends in Chapala Haciendas. Unbeknown to us the army was outside attempting a takedown of a neighbor who was a suspect. We were about to leave when some army guys came running out of the bushes and told us to get back inside until further notice. It turns out the suspect wasn't home so it ended fairly quickly.